Impact of propofol anaesthesia on cytokine expression profiles in the developing rat brain: a randomised placebo-controlled experimental in-vivo study.

Background: Recent experimental data indicate that volatile anaesthetics can induce a neuroinflammatory response in the central nervous system. The questions of to what extent this occurs in the developing brain and whether nonvolatile anaesthetics are also involved remain unanswered.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of propofol anaesthesia on cytokine mRNA expression profiles in the neonatal brain at defined stages of the brain growth spurt.